Monday, April 2, 2007

Producer's Profile In Food And Wine Magazine

Food And Wine Magazine

Rosie Sheehan's first ever food was a bagel, and she's eaten her share of them since. This Irish-sounding lady grew up in New York, but ended up living in Dungarvan with husband Des, where to her dismay her supply of authentic bagels dried up. She set about to make her own, with some determination (no New York baker was willing to divulge recipes so it was a case of trial and error) but soon hit on what they thought was a winning formula, using only natural ingredients found in most kitchen cupboards, and went ahead and opened a bagel shop. They soon learnt that Dungarvan wasn't ready for a bagel shop but, still determined as ever, they looked to wholesale as an alternative. The result? The bagels are now widely available in Ireland (Superquinn sell them in their bakeries as their own-brand bagels, as well as stocking the Broadway Bagel frozen, pre-sliced range, which are also available in Tesco, Spar and other multiples). They are also being exported to London's Wholefood stores, who are attracted to the fact that the bagels are E-free (one of the Sheehan kids had eczema so this was always important). Four million bagels later, and with seven staff manning the 2,500 square foot factory, you could say they made a go of it.